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Speaking Merits...How to start

I now have my CPP after my name and am ready to begin my journey towards earning my Craftsman and Master's.

I've volunteered to help at IUSA this year in order to get an inside feel of the organization and to earn a few merits towards my degrees. I enjoy doing things such as this so service merits will come easily for me.

I'm entering my state's Fall Print competition this month in preparation for District and then the International Print Competition. Earning print merits seems to be pretty straight forward, not easy but easy to understand.

Where I stand now is figuring out how to earn my speaking merits. I have considered putting together a few basic classes that are geared toward new photographers starting out in the business. I'm not looking to become a superstar on the speaker circuit but rather a person that's willing to share the knowledge he has with people that are eager to learn.

I have 15 years experience so I feel confident teaching the basics and after all the best way to learn something really well is to teach it.

What I need to know is where to start. By this I mean do I need to draw up a lesson plan, present the plan to someone for approval and then start recruiting students? I have a wealth of new start ups within 3 hours of my studio most of which have no affiliation of any kind. I figured I could make this my target market for both teaching and approaching potential new members.

Any advice on how to get started would be greatly appreciated.

I would also be willing to work alongside another instructor if need be.

Re: Speaking Merits...How to start

greg,
i assume your taking advantage of your resent membership to your state affiliate.
thats the perfect place to start. the affiliates are always looking for free speakers.
find out who is in charge of scheduling the speakers for the monthly meetings.
also call affiliates in the surrounding states. you could do a super monday.
there are many places to get a start speaking.
just come up with a few topics that your confident teaching, you don't have to present anything other then a topic. get the dates then write up a program. don't make it too long, usually your only giving about one hour. so don't expect to teach everything you know on a subject. better to cover a small aspect thoroughly then to try to cover too much. remember at an affiliate meeting you'll have photographers of all levels, so don't make it a program for just beginners. don't forget to leave some time at the end for q&a. at a super monday you could stress in the info that it's a program for beginners if that's what you want to teach.
hope this helps
joe

Re: Speaking Merits...How to start

It helps a lot Joe. I have recently contacted my state affiliate to let them know I'm here and willing to work. Based on your advice I think I need to be a bit more specific and let them know I'm available to speak on a variety of topics. The idea of teaching basics was just one avenue I was considering.

Is there anything I need to do beforehand to insure I receive merits? I assume if I speak at an affiliate meeting they can help with this but what if I do put together a class? Finding students will be fairly easy but I want to make sure I have my ducks in a row before I start recruiting.

Re: Speaking Merits...How to start

greg,
the affiliate will ask you for your ppa # and apply for the merit.
you'll probably be earning some type of credit from the state org also which will be applied to state degrees. each state has their own degree program, they should have all that info for you.
at the affiliate meeting, you don't have to hustle to get attendance.
if the speaker sounds interesting, has some credentials or degrees
then people will show up. you've been in business for 15 years and have a cpp, that should do it.
joe

greg,
i see a merit guy on the horizon. we've created the monster.
make sure you take care of your business & family first, the degrees will come in time.

Re: Speaking Merits...How to start

i see a merit guy on the horizon. we've created the monster.
make sure you take care of your business & family first, the degrees will come in time.

Hilarious. True, but hilarious.

Family and business do come first but this is what entertains me. My son is 22 and on his own so it's just me and the wife here and we're both photographers. It's our career and our hobby so becoming engrossed in projects like this is a good thing for us.

Re: Speaking Merits...How to start

local and state affiliates will usually have a contract for speaking gigs. They are only allotted a certain amount of merits to hand out -- so the number of merits you receive may vary from place to place. Depending on how far you are willing to travel, there are a number of affiliates across the country that are looking for fresh faces. You might also check with your lab, or another vendor, to see if they would be willing to sponsor you. Affiliates like speakers with sponsors -- it usually saves them a little bit of $$ when you begin talking about paid speaking engagements.

Local affiliates are usually more hungry for speakers than are state affiliates. Meaning, they will probably have openings in their speaker line-up for the current year, or year following (state affiliates often schedule a year to two years out).

If you are talking about hosting a program of your own, you will have to submit a syllabus to PPA for approval in order for them to list it as a PPA merited class. Be aware, when you host a class where the students get merits -- the instructor gets a merit as well, but it's not a speaking merit -- it is a service merit.

Super Mondays are easy ways to rack up merit points (2 speaking merits per Super Monday, the class gets promoted by PPA). As some have mentioned on other threads, they prefer to teach the class out of their competitor's market area. (i.e. plan a trip to a friends studio in another state, or a few hours drive away, and hold the Super Monday there).

Then there is always the option to contact PPA affiliate schools about being an instructor. These are multi-day courses though, so the schools will want to see a track record (i.e. can you teach a full day, or more than one day's worth of material).